Power umbilical with impact protection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11270812-B2
Application number	US-201916669722-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2019
Priority date	Dec 4, 2018
Publication date	Mar 8, 2022
Grant date	Mar 8, 2022

Abstract

The invention concerns a subsea umbilical comprising an electrical conductor (2) and/or a fluid pipe, and an outer sheath (7) surrounding the electrical conductor (2) and/or the fluid pipe. The umbilical (1, 20, 21, 25, 30, 40, 51, 60) further comprising a plurality of deformable rods (3a, 3b, 15, 23a, 23b, 26a, 27a, 26b) evenly distributed between the electrical conductor (2) and/or the fluid pipe, and the outer sheath (7) for radial load protection of said electrical conductor (2) or fluid pipe.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A subsea umbilical comprising:
a conduit comprising at least one of an electrical conductor and a fluid pipe;
an outer sheath surrounding the conduit;
a plurality of deformable rods evenly distributed between the conduit and the outer sheath for radial load protection of the conduit;
wherein a space is formed in a gap between two adjacent deformable rods of the plurality of deformable rods;
an outer layer element arranged between the sheath and at least one of the plurality of deformable rods;
wherein the outer layer element is formed such that a respective deformable rod of the two adjacent deformable rods mates with the outer layer element to form, along with an adjacent deformable rod, the space such that the respective deformable rod is constrained within the subsea umbilical when the respective deformable rod is being deformed and to allow the two adjacent deformable rods to deform into the space when exposed to a radial impact force; and
wherein the outer layer element is of a material of higher mechanical hardness than that of the plurality of deformable rods.

2. The subsea umbilical according to claim 1 , wherein the outer sheath is of a mechanically harder material than the deformable rods.

3. The subsea umbilical according to claim 1 , wherein the two adjacent deformable rods are separated by a wedge forming an integrated part of the outer layer element or a bridge separately arranged from the outer layer element.

4. The subsea umbilical according to claim 3 , wherein at least one of the plurality of deformable rods is a double deformable rod having substantially the same shape as a combination of two neighboring single deformable rods and the wedge, the remaining deformable rods being single deformable rods.

5. The subsea umbilical according to claim 1 , wherein at least two of the plurality of deformable rods have different mechanical hardness.

6. The umbilical according to claim 1 , wherein the deformable rods have a cross-sectional shape selected from the group consisting of:
cylindrical;
square;
triangular; and
trapezoidal.

7. The subsea umbilical according to claim 1 , comprising at least one fiber optic cable arranged in a location selected from:
the space; and
a recess of one of the plurality of deformable rods.

8. The subsea umbilical according to claim 7 , wherein deformable rods arranged next to the at least one fiber optic cable have a higher mechanical hardness than remaining deformable rods.

9. The subsea umbilical according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the following is semi-conductive:
the plurality of deformable rods; and
the outer layer element.

10. The subsea umbilical according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of:
the outer sheath is semiconductive; and
the subsea umbilical has formed therein radially extending holes through the outer sheath for draining off capacitive currents when the subsea umbilical is deployed at sea.

11. The subsea umbilical according to claim 1 , comprising an embedded metal rod or tape embedded in at least one of the following elements for draining off capacitive currents when the elongated member is used in testing operations onshore:
the deformable rod;
the outer layer element; and
a wedge.

12. The subsea umbilical according to claim 1 , comprising at least one of the following elements, the at least one element being arranged interior of the plurality of deformable rods:
an additional conductor;
a fluid pipe;
a fiber optical cable; and
a control cable.

13. The subsea umbilical according to claim 1 , wherein the two adjacent deformable rods are selected from the group consisting of:
two single deformable rods;
two double deformable rods; and
a single deformable rod and a double deformable rod.

14. The subsea umbilical according to claim 1 , comprising a plurality of outer layer elements arranged between the sheath and the plurality of deformable rods.

Assignees

• Aker Solutions As

Inventors

• Karimpour Mehrdad

Classifications

• H01B7/189 Primary

  Radial force absorbing layers providing a cushioning effect (H01B7/185 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01B7/14

  Submarine cables · CPC title

• H01B7/1815 Primary

  composed of longitudinal inserts · CPC title

• H01B7/045 Primary

  attached to marine objects, e.g. buoys, diving equipment, aquatic probes, marine towline · CPC title

• H01B7/18

  Protection against damage caused} by wear, mechanical force or pressure; {Sheaths; Armouring · CPC title